HARD-CORE PREPARATION

Sometimes It Hurts

I believe in being prepared. But when I say, "be prepared," I don't necessarilymean what other people mean when they utter the Boy Scout motto. I'm not talkingabout bringing extra matches. I'm talking about extreme preparation.

On May 16, 1975, Junko Tabei reached the summit of Mount Everest and became thefirst woman to stand on top of the world's highest mountain. She was four footnine, thirty-five years old, and had a two-year-old daughter at home in Tokyo atthe time. What made her accomplishment even more remarkable was that twelve daysearlier, she and four of her teammates—all part of a Japanese women'sexpedition—had been caught in an avalanche at Camp 2 and were completelyburied. It took six Sherpas to dig them out. Miraculously, they all survived,but their bodies were beaten up and bruised, as were their psyches. Junkoherself was in so much pain immediately after the avalanche that she couldbarely stand. Still, something got her to the summit. What was it?Here's what Tabei will tell you: "Technique and ability alone do not get you tothe top—it is the willpower that is the most important. This willpower youcannot buy with money or be given by others—it rises from your heart."

Fair enough, but I would add this: while willpower may help you get you to thetop, you better have technique and ability if you plan to get yourself and yourteam back down. People often forget that the top is only the halfway point. Themajority of deaths on big peaks occur after people have reached thesummit, because they have used every ounce of energy they have to get to the topand have nothing left to get themselves back down. The descent on Everest'ssummit ridge is harrowing—it's a 10,000-foot drop on one side and an8,000-foot drop on the other. You have to descend the infamous Hillary Step, aforty-foot spur of near-vertical rock and ice at 28,740 feet, and make it backdown to the South Col at 26,300 feet, so you better have enoughreserves—both in your oxygen tank and in your body. Otherwise? You'll die.

The cruel fact is that many people who are absolutely, categorically determinedto succeed on Everest die on the mountain because they're not ready for thereality they encounter on the peak. In fact, sheer desire accompanied by a lackof preparation is often a deadly concoction up there. Tabei was right on themoney when she said that you need mental toughness to get to the top, but rarelyis it enough by itself: in extreme environments you will vastly increase yourodds of success if you add proper training and preparation.

Over the years I have seen many expeditions end in disappointment because of alack of preparedness. If you're going to take on a big, hairy challenge, be itin the mountains, in business, or in life, you understand up front that you maysucceed or you may not. But you don't ever want to fail and wonder if theoutcome would have been different had you only been more ready. When you getshut down because of environmental factors, you face disappointment, but youdon't second-guess yourself or your abilities, since the environment issomething that you cannot do anything about. But if you turn back short of yourgoal because you just weren't strong enough to make it, that's when you start tobeat yourself up and ask the tough questions: Could I have trained more?Trained harder? Trained smarter? Was I dedicated enough? Was I focusedenough?

Only you can answer these questions. You want to go into a climb feeling as ifyou have done everything humanly possible to set yourself and your team up forsuccess, because once you get to the mountain everything is working against you:the cold, the wind, the altitude, the physical deterioration, the psychologicalchallenges, the teammate who steals your extra toilet paper—everything.There is no excuse for showing up in less than top form. You owe it to yourself,and more important, you owe it to your team. Leaders have got to show up readyfor battle. People will expect more from you than they do from others. You needto be able to perform at a level, both physically and psychologically,that exceeds expectations.

High-altitude expedition training is no easy task for anyone, but it isespecially challenging for those who don't live near the mountains and have tofind alternative ways to get into shape—people like me. In 2001, when Iwas preparing for the first American Women's Everest Expedition, I was just oneyear out of business school and was a new associate at Goldman Sachs. I had justtransferred to the firm's San Francisco office after spending nine months at itsheadquarters in New York City. Getting a job at Goldman came as a shock to me. Ihad competed with applicants who had Ivy League educations, and many of them hadworked in finance prior to earning their MBAs. I was liberal arts major at theUniversity of Arizona and had no finance or accounting background. The fact thatI didn't do particularly well in my quantitative classes in business school madegetting a job at a blue-chip financial firm seem even less likely. But I didhave tenacity, drive, and determination. I also sent postcards to the firm'srecruiters every time I went on a climbing trip during my vacation time frombusiness school, so I think I scored some creativity points there (as thatstands out more than sending a postcard from a CFA class). And the people whomade the hiring decisions had faith that I was at least intelligent enough tolearn the business.

I had gone to business school with the intent of opening an adventure travelcompany someday, and working for an investment bank was not what I hadenvisioned for myself. But I did want to learn about finance, and to that end, Ifigured there was no better place than a Wall Street firm. Not surprisingly, Iwas out of my comfort zone every day in that job at Goldman. I was surrounded bypeople who truly had a passion for the markets. Most of my colleagues were attheir desks by 5:00 or 6:00 a.m., and many came in even earlier. I wasn't reallyall that sure what they were doing there that early every day, but everyonelooked busy, which wasn't hard to do—you could just stare at your computerscreen and either nod or shake your head excessively based on what the marketswere doing.

I really wanted to do well at the firm; after all, landing the job in the firstplace was such a long shot, and I didn't want to disappoint the people who hadgone out on a limb to hire me. I was sure that they would eventually figure outthey had made the hiring mistake of the century, but I didn't want to blow itright away, so I came in early and worked late and pretended that I had what ittook to get meetings with important people. I would pick up the phone and speakat an abnormally loud volume level for the benefit of the people who were seatedaround me in the office. "Yes, yes, Mr. Gates ... well, okay, Bill ...if you insist ... yep, looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday. Yep, ten a.m.works great. Give my best to Melinda."

Of course there was no one on the other end of the phone. I couldn't seem to getany business prospects to meet with me. That might have been why I never earneda penny of commission and made less money than most of the administrativeassistants there. Then again, they were better at their jobs than I was at mine.But while I felt incredibly out of place at Goldman, I was also determined tomake it...